This invention relates to mountable lighting fixtures (e.g., on a ceiling, a vertical wall or a horizontal surface), and in particular to such lighting fixtures that are designed to permit easier maintenance access.
A wide variety of wall mounted lighting units are known. Some of these, such as chandeliers, are hung from the ceiling. Others, such as wall mounted sconces, extend outward and then upward from a vertical room wall.
Numerous considerations go into optimizing such lighting fixtures. Such fixtures must, of course, project light in a desired manner, and at a desired intensity. However, they should also preferably present a highly ornamental appearance without excessive glare.
Further, such fixtures must be of solid construction, be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and where low enough to the ground be tamper resistant. Also, such devices should preferably have low energy usage for the degree of light projected.
Apart from this array of standard considerations, one also needs to consider that most such devices use incandescent or fluorescent lamps to project light. While the durable life of such lamps can be quite long in some cases, most such lamps will periodically need to be replaced when they burn out. When a particular building has numerous such lamps, the time spent in replacing burnt out lamps can be significant.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,880 is a lighting fixture having a horizontally disposed two-sided reflector. A pair of fluorescent lights are mounted above and below the reflector so that light is projected both up and down in a controllable manner. Because the unit is a table or floor lamp the lamps can readily be reached for replacement by someone standing next to the lamp.
While this design has some advantages as a floor or table lamp design, it suffers from leaving the fluorescent lamps exposed to vandalism. Further, someone directly underneath the lamp might be exposed to an undesirable glare.
Another type of known lighting fixture is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,029. That unit is for a street light and is provided with a lower transparent bowl above which is mounted a lamp. When the lamp burns out, or there is other need for access to the interior of the fixture, the lamp and bowl can be swung down as a unit to provide access to the lamp and fixture interior. However, this design is set up to project light downward (and not upward), and is somewhat exposed to the risk of vandalism.
Thus, a need still exists for a light fixture that can project light in opposite directions without undesired glare in the downward direction, of undue risk of vandalism, yet provides easy access for maintenance.